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I know, I am weak, and have impulse control concerns.

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cee_Kamp
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Re: I know, I am weak, and have impulse control concerns.

Post by cee_Kamp » Thu Jun 18, 2026 9:38 pm

I have been dealing with some issues here at the house and haven't had much free time for guns and shooting.
But I did get a range day afternoon with my son and grandson several weeks ago.
I found my 200 grain Hornady XTP reload that I use for whitetail deer hunting in my Henry Big Boy Brass rifle and my Ruger Super Blackhawks was a bit excessive in that New Vaquero. The barrel profile is lighter and it has a touch more recoil than just shooting for fun level.

So I started looking for a .44 Magnum plinking reload that would be fun shooting.
I looked at a wide variety of projectiles, trying to balance reloading ease with reloading cost.
I eventually picked a Berry's Bullets copper plated swaged lead projectile, 0.430" diameter, 220 grain flat point truncated cone.
Using Hodgdon CFE pistol powder, at the recommended starting load of 8.5 grains using .44 Magnum cases, advertised velocity of 948 FPS with
16,700 PSI pressure. It's pretty soft shooting, you could easily shoot 500 of them in an afternoon and not get beat up.
It's just a touch more than .45ACP factory hardball ammo power level.

If you buy two boxes of 500 projectiles from Berry's, they include free ground shipping.
No leading in the bore being copper plated, and no bullet lube/grease in your reloading dies.

It is a very accurate reload in the handguns and rifle, and because it uses .44 Magnum cases, you don't get that burnt carbon ring in the chambers that shooting .44 Special reloads chronically leave behind. This reload is less than half the cost per round compared to my Hornady XTP reload.
Depending on which primers I use, per round cost is $0.30 to $0.35 per shot. Over on another forum, somebody mentioned they were paying close to $2.00 per shot for some "name brand" .44 Special reloads with a Keith style projectile and powder coated red. To me, that's beyond ridiculous and how can you ever expect to become proficient with that type of ammo expenses.
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